Are you looking to update WordPress URLs in the database? All content-related URLs stored in the WordPress database always start with the site domain. When we move a site from one domain to another we need to change these URLs matching to the new domain.

There are several ways of doing this task. One can go for plugins, migrators, run an update query, etc.

I am going to show you how to use interconnect’s script to change WordPress URLs in the database.

Why Need to Change WordPress URLs

While building a WordPress site, we first deploy it on the development server. The development server is mapped with the temporary/staging URL. After finishing the development, you need to move the WordPress site to the production server that has a live domain.

Before making a site live, you must update URLs from an old domain with the real domain. This will make sure the live website points to the live server instead of a development server.

The same situation applies if you want to update your site domain with something else. Here also you have to update your WordPress URLs from the old domain to the new domain URL.

The interconnect service provides a script that runs database search and replaces operations. It has a nice web UI to run database searches.

Having said that, let’s have a look at changing WordPress URLs with interconnect.

How to Change WordPress URLs

For getting started, you must take a backup of your database and keep it in a safe place. You can use the UpdraftPlus plugin to backup your WordPress database.

After this, head over to the interconnect website and fill-up the form. The form asks for basic information like name and email.

Upon submission, you will receive an email with the download link for a script. Download the package, extract it. Copy the package folder into the root directory of your WordPress project.

Next, run this folder on the browser. The link will be DOMAIN_URL/Search-Replace-DB-master.

You should see the page where you need to enter the old URL in the ‘replace’ field and the new URL in the ‘with’ box. Also, enter your database credentials and hit the ‘Test connection’ button. Refer to the below screenshot.

Once a script establishes a successful database connection, you will get an option like choose all/specific tables, do a test run, and button for actual search and replace.

Choose all tables, and hit a ‘Do a safe test run’ button. This will not actually change anything into the database. Instead, it gives you details like how many URLs are going to update, the count of URLs per database table, etc.

Finally, hit the ‘Search and Replace’ button which starts the actual desired operation of updating WordPress URLs.

You will see the activity of changing URLs on the same page. It may take some time depending on your database size.

Clean Up Interconnect Script

After finishing the process, don’t forget to hit the ‘delete me’ button. Also, make sure you have deleted the package folder ‘Search-Replace-DB-master’ from your server. This is an important step that must be performed to secure your server.

Now, browse your website and test if everything is working properly. All your website URLs for images, pages, posts, etc should be pointing to the new domain.

I hope you may have learned how to change the WordPress URLs in the database. Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below.

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